Prodigal Son, er, Daughter?
by SocialSuicide
Summary: Her name is Carter T. O'Neill-Jackson, and the first few things she did after coming through the event horizon were to point a weapon at Danny's head, announce that no one was allowed to touch her guns, and challenge Jack O'Neill's authority. RR
1. old code, instigation, and introductions

Disclaimer: As much as I would like to say that 'yes, I own Jack, Teal'c Daniel and Sammie,' 1) I think the people who actually do would be a mite mad at me, and 2) that would mean owning everything else, and I don't know about you guys but the Chevron guy creeps me out.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter?  
  
Chapter One  
  
"Sir we have an unscheduled incoming wormhole."  
  
"Is the code confirmed?" asked Hammond. If it was one of their people, there would be a code. Chevron guy (shudder) shook his head in confusion.  
  
"That's the weird thing, General, the code is ours, definitely, but, it's...over two years old." General Hammond looked a bit leery at this and then looked at the soldiers who had their weapons pointed at the wormhole.  
  
"Alright, accept the code."  
  
There was a moment of silence and then a figure stepped through the event horizon, stopping just outside and looking around with a sense of happy longing. She surveyed the armed officers with mild surprise and then held up her hands in formal surrender and peace gesture. At that moment, a duffel bag hit her square in the back and she rolled down the ramp a ways before picking herself up, looking back at the gate.  
  
"Judas!!" she yelled at it, shaking her fist as she pulled her duffel up straight. The commandoes looked at each other and then back at her as she faced them completely. She was a seedy youth in her late teens, thin as a bean pole, although she hated the cliché to death. Her short, curly brown hair was contained by her camouflage baseball hat and they could see that she had gray-ish sideburns. She wore a black muscle-shirt and camo-cargos that were secured with a belt. Her arms and legs were skinny, but beneath her light brown sunburned skin, her muscles were that of a lion, or a leopard. She dusted herself off, adjusted her hat, and saluted the amassed men.  
  
(Theme music...muahaha)  
  
O'Neill, Carter, Jackson, and Teal'c walked into the gate-room to which they had been summoned, to find a curious looking girl rifling through an Air Force duffel bag, up to her shoulders, searching for something.  
  
"I know I packed it...should'a put it near the top..." she muttered. The thing that the group paid the most attention to however, was the weapon that hung from a strap on her shoulder. It seemed to be a modified P-150, but they couldn't be sure. Also, there was the zat'n'ktel that was secured in a strap holster on her thigh, the nine millimeter that hung at her hip, and the two nine millimeters that hung in her shoulder-holster. They moved forwards, curiously and cautiously, to inspect this girl more closely.  
  
"Ah ha!" said the girl suddenly, and they started before realizing that she must have found what she was looking for. It turned out to be a camo- jacket, and she took the strapped weapon from her shoulder, setting it at her feet as she slid one arm into the jacket, which looked oddly familiar.  
  
Daniel, ever the curious one, tilted his head and stepped forward, crouching and reaching for the weapon.  
  
Faster than the human eye could blink, the teenager had a gun pointed at Daniel's head, though her expression was not angry or dangerous in any way. In fact, Teal'c was intrigued to see that she looked both worried and amused.  
  
"Vite si os vio spene, Daniel Jackson."** she said, and they all stared, except Daniel, who held up his hands and stood up, backing away. She lowered the weapon to her side and they were bemused to see that she had never taken the safety off, so they had worried about nothing. "I'll ask you all just once please keep your hands off my father's gun without my permission. It's all that I have to remember him by , I'd like to keep it intact."  
  
She looked at them, re-holstering her side-arm and shrugging the strap of her P-150 onto her shoulder. She turned to face the group with shaded eyes.  
  
O'Neill tilted his head.  
  
"How'd you know his name?" he asked. She focused on him, pausing for a moment.  
  
"That's classified." she said, and then tore her eyes away from him, looking around at the sound steel walls that surrounded her. The group looked at each other, suspiciously.  
  
"It uh, means I can't tell you." she said. He jerked back, shocked and amazed, and Daniel's eyes flickered between them.  
  
"Are you two related?" he asked, and while her eyebrows shot upwards in intrigued amazement, O'Neill's furrowed in angry disbelief.  
  
"I've never seen this person in my life! Are you sure the Goa'uld detectors are fixed properly, she could be a spy or something!"  
  
"Whoa there, Chief." said the girl, and Carter and Daniel looked amazed. Teal'c looked intrigued, and O'Neill looked stunned speechless. "Before you start losing your temper, as I'm told you're famous for, I feel it only fair to warn you that I am way...way better trained than you."  
  
A brief silence ensued and O'Neill recognized her challenge. He turned to face her completely.  
  
"Was that a challenge?" he asked, his voice a low growl. She let her eyes roll up towards the ceiling and took a deep breath.  
  
"Oh woe is me, the nasty old colonel is going to smite me with his power of the inferiority complex-"  
  
O'Neill lunged at her and suddenly found himself face down on the ramp. The girl sprang away from them all, dropping her weapons in a corner as the team progressed towards her. She dodged several attempts from Carter and then turned and received a face-full of Teal'c's palm, which lifted her bodily off the ground and landed her on her rear end at Daniel's feet.  
  
"Wow," she said, wiping the blood away from her upper lip. "Didn't see that one coming."  
  
The team however was at a loss for words.  
  
At Teal'c's surprise attack, her head had jerked back, flinging her hat right off her head, revealing the symbol of the Jaffa on her forehead. Teal'c in particular was curious as to its presence, as she seemed to ignore the basic principals of being a Jaffa. She was boastful, sarcastic. Indeed she shared many qualities with each of the members of SG1, some of them more prominently than others.  
  
She grabbed her hat and replaced it on her head, straightening her glasses as well. O'Neill looked at her through slightly narrowed eyes.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Carter."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"No, that's my name. My name is Carter."  
  
"And you're...what...some kind of human/Jaffa hybrid?" asked O'Neill. She bit her lip, deliberately ignoring the question as she looked around the room. There was a moment of silence and then Teal'c looked at her.  
  
"Are you Jaffa?"  
  
"No." she said. Then she stopped, pursing her lips and raising her eyebrows in the same way that Daniel usually did. "I think. They never told me. They thought it would compromise everything or something. What did they say... 'jeopardize the safety of the gate in an attempt to confirm certain aspects of my genetic structure.' something to that effect. And of course they were right. I bugged Da—ddy and George to let me go on a mission of my own until he let me, so here I am."  
  
Jack looked at her and then at his team.  
  
"In English, somebody. Anybody."  
  
"'They' said that she would use the gate to get information about her parents, by pretty much any means possible." said Daniel. "Whoever 'They' are."  
  
"Indeed." said the teenager named Carter.  
  
"And what's your name?"  
  
"Carter Teal'la O'Neill-Jackson." she said, straightening her glasses and dusting off the front of her clothes.  
  
A/N: Okay, sorry, didn't mean to make it so long, just got a little carried away.  
  
** "Vite si os vio spene, Daniel Jackson." (("That is so not yours, Daniel Jackson."))  
  
And I'm not sure if there is a female version to Teal'c's name, but I'm sure that if there was, 'Teal'la' would be close to it. So there you have it. Read and Review. Please. And if you have a suggestion, go ahead and make it. Flames accepted. 


	2. Games, injuries and arguments

Disclaimer: Okay, I love Stargate, but I am working on limited information, having only recently begun to watch the series. I'd been wasting my time with Dragonball Z and the like. forgive me. So if anything seems off, just take it as the best that I can do with what I've got to work with.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter?  
  
Chapter Two.  
  
Almost as soon as the security guard had led her graciously to her holding room, an uncomfortably small and barely furnished room, equipped with a cot and small stand, Teal'la took a status report. Daniel had told her that they hadn't changed the old ventilation access panels until the first Goa'uld attack after her waking.  
  
She dumped her duffel by the bunk and walked to the wall, prying a false panel from the shiny metal surface and smiling at the gaping hole before her. She crawled in and pulled the panel back onto the wall behind her, setting off on her own little journey through the ventilation shafts of the large facility.  
  
"Over on our right you'll see some wires leading to the excessive lights required for Daniel's studies of alien texts, objects, junk, blah, blah, blah." she muttered to herself as she soldier crawled through the tiny space. "And on our left..." she smiled at the familiar sound of arguing voices. "the debriefing room."  
  
She wormed, shimmied, and finally reached the end of the ventilation tube, sliding out carefully and trying not to make a sound as she wriggled and pulled herself out into the regular ceiling crawlspace.  
  
"—Know anything about this girl. I mean, for all we know, she could be a spy." came Jack's accusatory voice.  
  
"Well, if that's true, then we would have found a number of electronic equipment on her, but she and her duffel went through the X-ray tele-screen and apart from the guns...and her Jaffa symbol, she was clean." said Carter, in her all knowing, oh-so-sure-of-herself tone of voice. Teal'la toyed with the thought of Carter being her mother, but quickly returned her attention to the conversation, which was about her.  
  
"Maybe she's from a different timeline or alternate Earth. I mean, it's not that farfetched, considering everything else that we've been through." suggested Daniel. Teal'la nodded, having wondered how long it would take him to even suggest that possibility. "She's worth at least some study, or questioning."  
  
"Well if we're going to question her, we should do it and then send her back through the Stargate." Jack concluded hopefully.  
  
"I do not think that she would tell us what we want to know if we tortured her, Colonel O'Neill." Teal'c said, and Teal'la nodded above them, smirking at Jack's eagerness to get rid of her.  
  
"Not 'torture'. Interrogation. It's legal. Or we could send Daniel in to talk to her, she seems to like him." Jack replied. She suppressed a snort of laughter and then looked back at the ventilation shaft. She should start heading back, much as she wanted to stay and listen, so that the guard didn't look into the room and see her missing. She turned, placing all of her weight on one tile and promptly falling through the ceiling.  
  
For a long moment after landing and rolling off of the table, Teal'la just lay there, clutching at the skin just above her heart and breathing heavily.  
  
Meanwhile, the others had gotten over their mini-heart-attacks.  
  
"Jeez, Louise." was Jack's first comment, as he put his hands over his face for a moment.  
  
"Indeed." Teal'c replied.  
  
Teal'la sat up, looking at the hole, looking at the mess on the table, looking at the adults that were staring at her.  
  
"Wow." she said, grinning. A couple mouths dropped at this and she giggled. "That was fun, can I do it again?"  
  
General Hammond looked at her as if she were insane, and then shook his head.  
  
"No." he said. She pouted, but was unable to keep it up for very long. "How did you get out of your room?"  
  
She shrugged.  
  
"Would you believe about seven years of being sick and tired of being left behind?" she asked. Everyone shared a conspiratorial look and she dusted off her shoulders. "Plus about four years of trial and error." she added, standing up and dusting off her knees.  
  
"Hey." said Jack, and she froze, looking at him. "Don't you move."  
  
She had to wonder if Jack really thought this would work as anything but an instigation. With a mischievous grin she vaulted across the table, avoiding Teal'c's attempted grab, and dashed for the door as Jack and Teal'c got to their feet. Once outside, she slammed the door and avoided the guards, laughing as Jack and Teal'c collided with them upon opening said door.  
  
She raced down the hallway, giggling madly as they followed, always one step ahead of them. She played this all the time with her friends back home, who were just about the same ages as those following her. But they'd never win. No one could ever predict her, so there was no way that they'd be able to catch her.  
  
WHOMP!!  
  
She and the person she hadn't seen coming went down in a whirlwind of papers. She rolled a little bit away and then got to her knees, mortified that she might actually have hurt someone.  
  
"Oh geez, mister, I'm so sorry." she said, hurriedly. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going!" she spluttered, snatching papers from the ground and putting them in a neater stack than what they currently were.  
  
"No, you weren't." he said, slightly amused, and her head snapped up. She groaned. "And don't worry, I bounce back."  
  
Correction. No one could predict her...but Daniel.  
  
Daniel could predict her before he even knew what to call her.  
  
"No fair! You cheated!" she whined, throwing the papers at him and turning, slipping on some papers, but making a valiant effort to get away. Unfortunately, for her anyway, Daniel had already gotten to his feet. He hurled himself at her with a theatrical yell and tackled her around the middle.  
  
"Jack!! Hey, Jack!! I got her!!" he yelled, as she squirmed. He sat up, pulling her up with him, and dug his feet into the floor, trying to hold her still. She howled like a toddler that was being held away from her toys and kicked her feet, squirming as she tried to break Daniel's grip.  
  
The others turned the corner to see this, and Teal'c tilted his head, taken aback at the sight. Jack was too for a moment, and then they moved forwards. She saw them and pouted, glaring at them.  
  
"You cheated. I demand a do-over." she commanded. This took them by surprise, and Daniel's grip loosened some, tightening when she tried to take advantage of this quasi-opportunity. She huffed.  
  
"Do-over?" Jack asked, and she nodded, folding her arms as best she could from a sitting position. "What is this, some sort of game?" he demanded. Her mood brightened, and she nodded, trying to stand up. Daniel thought she was trying to get away and dug his heels into the walk way. She managed to get one hand free and grabbed onto the grated floor, pulling herself forwards. Daniel made a valiant effort to not let go, but found himself being pulled up with her.  
  
"Daniel!" she whined. "Stop being so clingy!"  
  
At this, he was surprised, and let go. Unfortunately, she pitched forward, yelping as she quickly extricated her hand from the grate and standing up, eyes squinted shut as she gripped her wrist.  
  
"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow." she said, shaking her hand as if to rid it of the smarts. Carter stepped forward in a most maternal fashion and both she and Daniel crowded around her to see if she was bleeding.  
  
"Let me see." Carter said, and Teal'la held it out.  
  
"It's okay, I've had wor-OW!" she yanked her hand back and held it to herself, refusing to let anyone see. Jack rolled his eyes, as Teal'c stepped forward.  
  
"Perhaps we should take her to see Doctor Fraiser." he said, in his even tone of voice. Sam looked at Daniel, and they nodded, leading her off towards the doc's office. Jack watched them, dumbfounded. Obviously, this kid was leading his team astray and he was the only one not affected by it. He was going to make it his personal responsibility to watch over his team and make sure that she didn't corrupt them.  
  
In Doc Fraiser's office, Teal'la kept the wincing to a minimum as the good doctor wrapped her hand and fingers in a light gauze. That was after she applied a salve that stung like hell.  
  
"So, what'd you mean, when you said that chase was all just a game?" asked Jack, and the others looked interested in the answer.  
  
"Just that, and you cheated, so I get a do-over." she said, wincing as Doc Fraiser accidentally pressed too hard. "Ow."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"I don't think so." Jack said. Teal'la looked at him.  
  
"You have to give me a do-over. It's in the rules!" she whined.  
  
"Yeah, well, I'm breaking the rules." he snapped. She gaped, open-mouthed, and he looked at her, daring her to challenge him. She pouted at him.  
  
"See if I ever play a game with you again, you cheater." she grumbled, resting her chin in her other hand. The others watched this exchange in pure, undiluted fascination. It was like watching two kids call each other names.  
  
"Well, excuse me, but running around a top secret facility after an untrustworthy person of questionable mental status is not my idea of a good time." he said, and she rolled her eyes.  
  
"No, I suppose you'd like to take me out to the firing range for target practice." she muttered. Jack glared at her.  
  
"Okay, that's it. I know your kind, I've dealt with your type before. You're grounded. No phones, no computers, no boys...and no games!!" he said. She gawked at him.  
  
"That's not fair!!" she protested, and the others shook their heads, enthralled by this conversation.  
  
"Yeah, well, life's not fair." Jack said. "So there."  
  
Teal'la stuck her tongue out at him.  
  
A/N: Okay, so that was chapter two. I think that turned out rather well, don't you? I love the argument between Jack and Teal'la, they're like perfect mirrors of each other. 


	3. Questions, conversations, and annoyances

Disclaimer: If I owned Stargate, don't you think I'd know a little bit more about the shows than I do at the moment?  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter.  
  
Chapter Three.  
  
Teal'la was staring at the ceiling, pouting when the door opened. She could hear from the sound of the footsteps who it was.  
  
"Hello, Janet." she said, sitting up and removing her hat, her jacket, and her boots. Doctor Fraiser tried to pretend she wasn't put off by Teal'la knowing her name, as she'd not been introduced as anything but Doctor Fraiser. She pulled out her stethoscope.  
  
"Hello, Teal'la." she replied, amiably.  
  
"Most people just call me Carter. You know, because it's my name?" Teal'la hinted. Janet looked at her.  
  
"That would be too confusing. What would we call Major Carter?" she asked. Teal'la smirked.  
  
There was a long silence and the Teal'la tilted her head.  
  
"You can ask, y'know, I know they're listening."  
  
This startled Janet.  
  
"Don't look so surprised, Doc. Where I come from, they do the same thing, usually when I'm mad, so they can figure out what they did wrong." she chuckled.  
  
"Where *do* you come from?" Janet asked.  
  
"Earth, just not this one."  
  
"There's more than one?"  
  
"Do you doubt it?" asked the teenager, as Janet scribbled something on her clipboard. the older woman conceded the point. "Daniel and Sam can tell you all about it." There was a pause. "Anything else?"  
  
"How do you know us?" Janet seemed to have wanted to ask this all along. Teal'la shook her head.  
  
"I'm not at liberty to say, ask something else."  
  
"Have you been to the SG base before?"  
  
"Cheyenne mountain? Sure I have. I work here. I practically live here. Well, not *here* here, but you get the idea." Teal'la said, her forehead crinkling a little in confusion. Janet paused, then put the clipboard down.  
  
"How did you get out of your room?" she asked. Teal'la grinned.  
  
"Can you keep a secret?" she asked. Janet nodded, and Teal'la leaned forward, conspiratorially. "So can I."  
  
*  
  
Teal'la dug in her stuff and pulled out a small, red, handheld device from her duffel, punching in a series of numbers and watching the small screen. when the load sign appeared, she tucked the device into her belt and walked over to the wall, climbing into the ceiling crawlspace, moving carefully through the somewhat more spacious area. It took a while to connect to other dimensions.  
  
She wandered around for a while, and then stopped when the device beeped. She sat with her back to the side of the space and her weight evenly dispersed, turning on the monitor and pulling the ear-piece from the allotted space on the object. She fixed it to her ear and pushed the green button.  
  
A live feed sprang up to fill the tiny screen, and she smiled at Daniel's unshaven mug.  
  
"Carter?" he asked.  
  
"Hey, dad. Did I wake you up?" she asked. He yawned and stretched.  
  
"Yeah. How are ya?" he asked  
  
"I'm adjusting." she responded. He nodded, satisfied. "You?"  
  
"well, there hasn't been an attack since you've left, but I wouldn't want to jinx it." he joked weakly. She smirked. "We miss you, Carter."  
  
"Yeah, I know," she said, knowing that he was referring to the three other contributors to her DNA. they were dead, but Daniel was unwilling to let them go, and so referred to them as living. "Three more days and I'm back without a hitch. What could go wrong?" she asked, flippantly. He adjusted his glasses.  
  
"Uh...everything, actually." he said. At that moment, the vent next to where she'd been sitting lifted up and Carter's head popped through, bewildered and exasperated.  
  
"Teal'la," she started, and the teenager in question rolled her eyes.  
  
"Carter! This is a private conversation!" she whined, and the major made a hasty retreat. Teal'la shook her head, looking at her father. "Hold on, Daddy, I'll relocate." she said. He nodded patiently, and she took off down the crawlspace a ways. This time, she sat on the vent, because she knew from experience that those things could hold more than she weighed. She fixed her reception and looked back at Daniel. "Okay, sorry about that. Where were we?"  
  
"Talking about what could go wrong." he said, and she snapped.  
  
"Right." se said, remembering her place. Then she eyed the camera. "You worry too much." she said. He snorted.  
  
"Damn right I do." he agreed. "Especially when it comes to you."  
  
"Well there is nothing to worry about, and even if there were, I have the communicator!"  
  
"Carter, the lithium cells in that thing aren't unlimited." he said, sternly. She rolled her eyes.  
  
"Oh gosh, only twenty years of one hour a day calls home." she said, melodramatically. He gave her a 'look', and she groaned, mostly for his benefit. She held up one hand "It is my solemn vow to not reveal any information about my timeline or its occupants, I promise not to go through the Stargate except to come home, and I swear to *try*not to form attachments to this timeline's occupants." she said, letting her hand drop. "Happy?"  
  
"Very." Daniel responded. "Oh, and Happy Waking Day, hon."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"We threw you a party."  
  
"Goody, did the Goa'uld make the guest list again?" she asked, bitterly. Daniel winced, shaking his head.  
  
"No. Not this time." he said, sadly. She looked as if there was a bad taste in her mouth as he continued. "Jonas toasted you. I think he likes you."  
  
"Eew, dad," she said, the smile returning to her face.  
  
"You know, one day, you're going to meet a man who—"  
  
Daniel never got to finish what he was saying, because at that moment, the vent opened downwards, and Teal'la fell through, folding almost in half, only to be caught by Jack. Her mouth opened in a silent 'o' of surprise and then she composed herself as he set her on her feet.  
  
"I thought I told you no games. I grounded you, what are you doing out of your room?" he demanded. She raised an eyebrow at him and then winced as a dangerously calm voice filtered into her ear through the earpiece.  
  
"Grounded...Carter?" Daniel asked, crossing his arms across his chest. She looked at him and nervously licked her lips.  
  
"It's not what you think, Dad." she said, rolling her eyes at Jack. He pointed a warning finger at her. "I was...exploring the ceiling space and I...made a hole in the debriefing room ceiling. chasing ensued..."  
  
"Ugh, Carter," Daniel said, holding his head in his hands.  
  
"Hey, it's not my fault that they make the ceilings out of that polystyrene whatever it is." she snapped, and then she stopped. "Don't yell."  
  
"I'm not yelling. I'm past yelling. You didn't play the game, did you?" he asked. Teal'la glanced at Jack and cleared her throat, scratching her neck. "Carter!!"  
  
"I'm sorry!" she whined. She looked pitiful, and Jack stared at her, stepping forward and reaching for the communicator. She slapped his hand away and pointed at him, not unlike the way that he had. The she shooed him away, stepping away from him. "Nosy and a cheater."  
  
"Out of curiosity, who won?" Daniel asked, face in his hands still.  
  
"Ugh, you did, as usual. Which, by the way, I find very unfair. Anyway, C.C.P.E here wants to talk to you. You up for it?"  
  
"No." was the immediate, firm reply, and she raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Okay, okay. Gosh, no need to bite my head off. Time's up anyway. I'll talk to you...well whenever. Lithium batteries aren't unlimited, y'know." she said, mocking him. He smirked.  
  
"See ya, Carter." he said. She nodded and switched off the device, pulling the earpiece from her ear and sliding it back into its slot. She put the device in her belt and returned to the problem at hand. Jack narrowed his eyes at her.  
  
"C.C.P.E?" he asked. She smirked mischievously.  
  
"Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater?" she said, a 'well duh' expression on her face. He rolled his eyes.  
  
"Ah." he commented, and she stepped up onto the table that Jack had pulled out to open the vent. He looked at her and grabbed onto her belt to steady her as she reached up and closed the vent, standing on tip-toe to do so. Then she stepped back down and pushed the table back against the wall.  
  
After she had left the room, Jack tilted his head. What just happened? He had felt...worried for her safety? He followed her, shaking his head and hopping back onboard his train of thought.  
  
"Who was that?" he demanded, catching up to her. She looked at him, not stopping.  
  
"Who was who?" she asked, as if confused.  
  
"That guy," elaborated Jack, grasping at straws.  
  
"What guy?"  
  
"The guy you were just talking to." he said, exasperated  
  
"Oh," she said, a look of dawning comprehension coming over her. "that guy." she concluded.  
  
And kept walking.  
  
Jack walked after her, waiting for the rest of it.  
  
"Well?" he asked. she furrowed her seventeen year old eyebrows at him.  
  
"Well, what?" she asked.  
  
"Who was it?" he replied, only slightly annoyed at this point.  
  
"Who was who?" Oh, this was just too easy.  
  
"The guy you were talking to?"  
  
"What about him?" Teal'la asked, feigning innocence.  
  
"What was his name?" he growled.  
  
"Whose name?" She was so good at this.  
  
"The guy's name!" he exploded. She stopped walking, facing him completely.  
  
"What about it?" she asked, watching as he resisted the urge to strangle her. She grinned.  
  
"What was the name of the guy that you were just talking to." he asked, slowly, maintaining control. Her grin did not fade.  
  
"Dad." she revealed at last, watching him struggle with the answer. God, she loved doing that.  
  
And, about ten seconds later, she raced past Hammond, giggling like a maniac as Jack ripped down the hall after her.  
  
"Coming through!" she yelled, leaping over a soldier that had knelt to tie his shoelaces. He watched her go and then flattened against the wall as Jack nearly knocked him down, cursing.  
  
She stopped at the end of a hallway, breathing heavily and watching as Jack raced past the turn, backing up and glaring at her, utmost loathing on his face.  
  
"I thought you said no games?" she yelled, grinning. "Oh shi—"she stuttered, as he tore down the corridor towards her.  
  
The games were on. 


	4. conclusion to a chase, and waking day co...

Disclaimer: This thing is for losers and idiots. If you haven't figured out that I only own Teal'la, you are one of these.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Four.  
  
After being chased around the base for all of twelve minutes, Teal'la ran into Teal'c.  
  
Literally.  
  
And after convincing him that Jack was chasing with intent to bodily harm, she retreated to the mess, because her stomach was telling her to eat. But not before she witnessed Teal'c restraining Jack. She howled with laughter until Daniel got there, and then she leaned on him as tears poured from her eyes like the Niagara falls.  
  
When she finally calmed down, she went to the mess, where she ordered an entire Pumpkin Cheesecake and a large glass of milk.  
  
She was still working her way through the first piece when someone she didn't recognize sat down across from her.  
  
"So. You're the new 'pet' project, huh?" he said, in a not particularly friendly way. She raised her head to look at him and raised an eyebrow, slowly, not saying a word as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. "It figures it'd be a girl." At this, she tilted her head, and went back to her Pumpkin Cheesecake. "So, what rank are they making you? Lieutenant? Corporal?" His voice dropped to a mutter. "Secretary? Personal assistant?"  
  
"That's sexual harassment and I can sue you." she said, mildly, eating another piece of her Pumpkin Cheesecake. He snorted.  
  
"You can only sue if you're a citizen of this planet. I think you'd have a hard time passing 'that' off as a birthmark." he said, poking her hat over her forehead. She snagged his hand and pinned it to the table, much to his surprise. She took the carving knife from the pie pan and wiped it off on the napkin, one handed. Then she pressed on his hand so that his fingers spread apart. "What are you doing?" he asked, trying to pull his hand back from her. She paid him zero heed, bringing the knife down beneath his fingers quickly and smoothly without touching him, or barely nicking the table.  
  
He cried out as she sped up, and pleaded with her to let his hand go. She raised her eyebrow and concentrated harder, ignoring both his fidgeting and his cries of fear.  
  
"Teal'la." came a soft voice, and she barely glanced up before driving the knife into the table between the man's forefinger and his thumb. He whimpered.  
  
"Listen very carefully." she said, in a low, dangerous growl. "I have seen things far more horrifying and disturbing than things that you have seen in your worst, most terrible nightmare. Which makes you not intimidating in the least. If you ever...speak to me in that manner again, I will personally ensure you never say that type of thing to any member of the female sex. Do we understand each other?"  
  
He nodded, eyes wide, jaw slack with fear. She pushed his hand away from him and pulled the knife from the table, putting it back in the pie pan. The man left, shaking. She looked at Carter and took a deep breath, returning to her pie.  
  
"Hello, Sam." she said, and the Major stepped forward.  
  
"What did you do to Lieutenant Rimsky?" she asked. Teal'la shrugged.  
  
"I intimidated him. Nothing permanent, except he won't ever speak to me disrespectfully again." she said, transporting another piece of her pumpkin cheesecake to her mouth via fork. "If he knows what's good for him." she added, eyeing the doorway. Carter shook her head, sitting down across from Teal'la and looking at her.  
  
"You can't just do that to people, Teal'la, everyone will get really paranoid, really fast, and think that you're dangerous." she said, in a tone of concerned worry. Teal'la hesitated.  
  
"At the risk of being put back in my cage..." she started, and Carter stopped her.  
  
"Teal'la, that's not funny." she said.  
  
"Whoever said it was?" asked the teenager, cutting herself another slice of pie. "The man insulted me. I had to make him believe that I could actually do something about it if he made me that upset. I'm not just going to let them attack me, Sam."  
  
"Call me Carter."  
  
"Can't, that would confuse me, seeing as it's my first name. It's hard enough when Daniel does it." she said. Carter sighed, resting her chin in her hand.  
  
"What are we going to do with you?" she asked. Teal'la smirked.  
  
"Laugh at my jokes and protect me from Jack's future intentions of bodily harm?" she suggested. Carter shook her head, a smile forming on her lips.  
  
After Carter left, Teal'la went back to peacefully eating her pie, contemplating the symbolism of her waking day. The fourth of July. Independence Day. It was a hard thing to live up to, and she knew she'd have to do a lot of good to do so. *At least I have Daniel*, she thought to herself. *I'm not alone as long as I have him.*  
  
Almost as she thought his name, Daniel walked into the room, accompanied by Teal'c, expressionless as ever. She glanced at them and then returned to her treat. They were there for the food, not her company. And even if they wanted to talk to her, they were probably going to ask her questions, the answers to which were classified.  
  
So when they sat down across from her, she looked at them, eyebrows raising slowly.  
  
"Can I help you?" she asked. Daniel jumped right in.  
  
"We just thought you might need some company." he said, and she looked at him, transferring pie from her plate to her mouth without taking her eyes off of him, shades still covering her eyes.  
  
"Either Carter sent you to keep an eye on me, Jack sent you to make sure I stay out of his hair, George sent you to weasel information out of me, or a combination of the three." she said at last, and Daniel looked slightly alarmed. She cast her glance to Teal'c, who raised an eyebrow. "So?"  
  
"It is a combination of the three options." he said, and she nodded.  
  
"Can...you read minds or something?" Daniel asked, warily. Teal'la smirked.  
  
"That would make things much simpler to deal with, wouldn't it?" she responded. Then she shook her head. "No. I can't. I'm not telepathic, to the best of my eighteen years of knowledge." she answered, taking a drink of her milk and turning her attention back to the pie. There followed an uncomfortable silence and then Teal'c tilted his head.  
  
"May I inquire as to the occasion?" he asked, and after a moment, she looked at him, a quirky smile sliding across her face.  
  
"Indeed." she said, and he raised an eyebrow. Daniel smiled at the icebreaker her comment provided.  
  
"What's the occasion?" he asked, more directly. Teal'la gave a one-shoulder shrug.  
  
"Today is my Waking day." she said, gesturing grandly with her fork. Teal'c and Daniel shared a look of confusion. "Eighteen years ago today, I woke up." Daniel's eyebrows furrowed and he looked back at Teal'la, who had busied herself with the pie in front of her, savoring each bite. His mouth worked at words that he wanted to say, but didn't know how to, and Teal'c looked at her.  
  
"Do you not mean to say that it is your birthday?" he asked. She gave a sardonic smirk.  
  
"I would, if I had been born." she said, casually. Teal'c merely accepted this as a logical reason and let the issue drop. After all, she was obviously not the same as the other Jaffa who wore the symbol on her brow. Daniel worked his mouth to say something, anything.  
  
"Oh," Okay, something a bit more eloquent than that. "Well, uh, Happy...Waking Day." he finished.  
  
"Indeed." said Teal'c and Teal'la at the same time. Daniel stared at the two of them and she looked at them, taking her sunglasses off and letting them hang from the band around her neck.  
  
"You guys can have some pie if you'd like. It sucks to celebrate alone." she offered, and they considered briefly before nodding.  
  
"I'll go get us some plates." Daniel said, and he got up, leaving Teal'c and Teal'la at the table. They looked very much alike with none of the others to be comparison. She looked into his eyes for a moment, as the two of them followed in the tradition of the awkward silence.  
  
"So, did Janet's results come back yet?" she asked, not blinking or averting her gaze.  
  
"They have indeed, Teal'la." he responded, also not blinking or looking away.  
  
"Good." She sounded relieved, as if some weight had been lifted from her.  
  
Daniel came back as Jack came in the mess hall, and neither Teal'c nor Teal'la looked up, both engaged in a wordlessly initiated staring contest. Jack saw the teenager and rolled his eyes, still rather upset from Teal'c pinning him to the wall.  
  
"Oh, hey Jack, we were just celebrating Teal'la's waking day. Care to...join...us?" he asked, trailing off a bit as he noticed the staring contest. He glanced at Jack, who moved forward and waved a hand between them, to no effect.  
  
"Right...Hammond's called a meeting, we gotta go." At this, Teal'la stood up, breaking eye contact with Teal'c and grabbing the pie tin. Jack held up a hand. "You can't come."  
  
"Why not?" she asked. "It's about me."  
  
They all froze and Teal'c looked at her, head tilted.  
  
"How did you know that?"  
  
"What else have you had to talk about since I got here? Besides, the results from my tests came back." She held up a hand as Jack opened his mouth to say something. "No, I'm not a spy, and I'm not Psychic."  
  
"Stuck in a loop?" Jack asked, and she stopped, raising an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Interesting deduction, but no. If I was, I would know what the meeting entailed, down the last detail. No, I guessed." Jack scowled, and his look bore the phrase 'Smarty-pants'. She smirked. Then she got serious. "If it's about me, I have a right to know." she said.  
  
"Not in this base you don't, not without the proper security clearance." Jack countered. She stared at him for a long moment and then narrowed her eyes at him, jamming her sunglasses onto her face, pulling the brim of her hat down as far as it would go and sitting back down, her elbows making rough contact with the table.  
  
"Fine, so get lost." she snapped. Jack shook his head.  
  
"For crying out loud." he muttered, and then looked at them. "I don't have time for this."  
  
He left and Daniel looked between the two of them for a moment before sighing and walking after O'Neill.  
  
"Jack!" he called, and Teal'la ignored them. Teal'c remained for a moment longer, before rising to his feet.  
  
"Farewell, Teal'la."  
  
"Whatever." she said, monotonously, returning to the pie. 


	5. more sneaking, betrayal, discovery, and ...

Disclaimer: What do you think? (By the way, I suggest everyone go to a site called The Alpha Gate Fanfiction Archive, go to general fiction, humor, story index, 'd' titles and go to 'the Drink'. If you love to laugh, you will love this.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Five  
  
I really don't get why they don't like me. I'm a likeable person. Everyone in my dimension loves me...well, except the Goa'uld...who pretty much comprise the entire planet...okay, bad example.  
  
This is what Teal'la thought to herself as she crawled commando style through the ceiling space towards the debriefing room, where she knew they were talking about her. What was so bad about her being in on it, anyway?  
  
I mean, the only thing there was to tell was that she was a living experiment made up of samples of their genetic material...not that big a deal...right?  
  
She settled herself quietly next to the vent, and placed her elbows on either side of it, listening carefully as they continued the conversation that had just begun.  
  
"—Found several places in her genetic coding that were surprisingly consistent with that of...well, the SG1 team." said Janet, a projection thrown onto the screen behind her.  
  
There was a short silence.  
  
"What, you mean like, similar to?" asked Daniel, swiveling his chair from side to side, like he did at almost every briefing. Above them, Teal'la smirked.  
  
~Come on, Daniel, you know better, you were the one who came up with the idea.~ Teal'la thought as she listened.  
  
"No, I mean exactly the same."  
  
A longer silence.  
  
"I fail to understand how this is possible." Teal'c said.  
  
"Yeah, me too." Jack agreed almost instantly. Teal'la smiled, shaking her head. Poor Jack.  
  
"Lots of Genetic manipulation, but that's not even the most interesting part." Janet continued, and in her not-quite-cozy hiding place, Teal'la blinked. What else was there to know? Janet used a laser pen to point to places on her projection. "These blocks here...here, and here...those are all Goa'uld."  
  
There was a long moment of silence, in which Teal'la wondered if they knew she was there and were playing a practical joke on her. This notion quickly passed however and she blinked, several times. She felt a rush of panic. Her? A Goa'uld? No fucking way.  
  
"She's a Goa'uld-Human Hybrid?" Carter asked, disbelief sounding in her voice.  
  
"It's not just that, Major. She carries a Goa'uld symbiote."  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone, doc. We have Goa'uld detectors. The alarms would have gone off if she was carrying one. You must have picked up someone else's file or something." Jack cut in, sure that he had caught a flaw in Janet's sadistic little practical joke. She looked at him.  
  
"No, I definitely have the right file, but I do have a theory about the Goa'uld detectors. We programmed them to sense active Goa'ulds, or Goa'ulds that were influencing their hosts. The reason that we didn't detect hers is because it's dormant." Janet lectured, and Jack stared, sure that she must be joking. Goa'ulds, sleeping or no, did not let their hosts have as much fun as Teal'la had been having. He certainly didn't know any that like pumpkin cheesecake.  
  
...  
  
Not that he was on a first name basis with any.  
  
"The symbiote is actually attached to her, though, I've never seen anything like this. It's like she was born this way—"  
  
"Uh," interrupted Daniel, and everyone looked at him. "For the record, she wasn't born, she was created."  
  
There was a moment of silence, in which everyone except Teal'c stared incredulously at him. Teal'la waited for their reactions while at the same time contemplating the new information she had just assimilated.  
  
"How do you know that, Dr. Jackson?" asked General Hammond. Teal'c answered for him.  
  
"Teal'la informed us of this herself, in the mess hall." he supplied.  
  
Teal'la wasn't listening, consternation brewing inside her. How could she be alive for eighteen years and not know that there was an alien inside of her? And for that matter, how could Daniel not have realized it?  
  
A thought struck her that actually caused a flare of emotional pain in her chest.  
  
Had Daniel known all along and was keeping it from her?  
  
Her eyes stung as she focused on the next part of the conversation.  
  
"Is it likely that this symbiote will become active anytime in the near future?" asked George. Janet hesitated.  
  
"Well, uh, sir, there is evidence that supports that it has—"  
  
"Say it with me, Doc. 'I don't know'." Jack interrupted, and she shot him a scathing glare.  
  
"I don't know sir."  
  
Teal'la felt as if someone had just handed her own heart to her on a silver platter. It was the pain of betrayal. If Daniel knew, why wouldn't he have told her? Here she held the all time living record for Goa'uld kills and she was one?  
  
Hot, angry tears stung her eyes and she blinked, trying not to make a sound.  
  
"So...she's a threat?"  
  
Teal'la wanted to shout at them, No! No, she wasn't, and she wanted desperately to believe it also, but now she just wasn't sure.  
  
"I don't think so, sir," started Carter. "She acts like a regular kid. Even if the Goa'uld were smart enough to sleep through the gate alarms, I don't think it would be able to fool us for very long. If Teal'la were being controlled by the Goa'uld, she would have let something slip by now."  
  
"Indeed, she shows no signs of carrying a Goa'uld." said Teal'c in her defense. He said it like it was a dirty word. Did that mean he wasn't going to like her any more, now that he knew she was carrying one? Was she even sure that she liked herself now?  
  
"So, if she doesn't know that she has one, attached somewhere in the region of shoulders..." said Jack, somewhat flustered. She could hear the pity overflowing in his voice in his next words. "How do we break it to her? I mean, from what we know of her, she and the Goa'uld aren't exactly on a first name basis."  
  
Teal'la carefully pulled herself up into a hunched over sitting position and listened.  
  
"We don't." came the General's hesitant reply. Jack looked at him and then around the table at the sympathetic faces around him.  
  
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" Jack asked. Having been half- Goa'ulded himself once, he felt the girl's pain. Daniel leaned forward.  
  
"Jack," he said, softly. "If she doesn't already know, don't you think she'd be happier not knowing?" he asked, looking extremely sorry for the situation. Teal'la decided right then and there that she hated that look much more than the fact that there was a Goa'uld nestled in the pit of her stomach.  
  
Time to put a stop to their pity.  
  
She kicked the vent out from the ceiling and dropped through as Jack made to reply. He pushed himself back from the table and looked at her as she stood on the table, vent covering forgotten on the table beside her. Jack took a moment to register two things.  
  
She was crying.  
  
And she was *pissed*.  
  
Her hands were clenched into fists of rage and he made no move to restrain her.  
  
"I don't know, Daniel, why don't you ask her?" he murmured. She took a deep shuddering breath and walked towards the end of the table, stepping down calmly and walking towards the door as tears poured down the side of her face.  
  
"Teal'la—"Daniel said, getting to his feet and grabbing her arm as she reached for the door handle. Her outstretched hand became a fist again and she rammed it into his cheek without a second thought, knocking him across the table.  
  
"Fici bara hyo ro ich'el neo lyo," she snarled, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "lyo canote lomachi!"  
  
She yanked open the door and walked through, slamming it behind her so hard that the window overlooking the 'gate room shuddered. The sounds of a struggle ensued, and there were two male screams. Jack and Teal'c looked at each other before getting to their feet as Carter went to help Daniel.  
  
Teal'la was out of sight by the time that Jack and Teal'c were in the hallway, and they both tripped over their injured comrades, for the second time in forty-eight hours. Jack got to his feet first and helped Teal'c help the others to a more upright position. Then they looked down each corridor.  
  
"Okay, Teal'c, let's split up. I'll take this corridor. And Teal'c," he added, as the big Jaffa started moving. He looked back at his leader. "She's upset. She not possessed."  
  
"I understand, O'Neill."  
  
****  
  
It was Jack who found her. She was in her room, sitting in the corner with her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms perched atop them so that the only thing that showed were her eyes under the brim of her hat.  
  
He opened the door and looked at her for a moment as he decided how best to handle this.  
  
"Hey," he said, by way of greeting. She did not look at him, and her only movement was the heaving of her shoulders as random, racking sobs escaped her. Tears still streamlined her cheeks, and he waited in case she had planned to respond. When she didn't, he took a step into the room. "Mind if I join you?"  
  
"Yes. Go away and leave me alone." she snapped, and he reeled back from the fierce pain in her cracked and emotionally hoarse voice. He looked around the room and then stepped all the way in, closing the door behind him and walking over to the cot, under which a stool was stored. He brought it over and set it down to sit on, only to watch her lash out with one booted foot and kick it all the way across the room.  
  
It was then that he noticed the dents in the wall were she had obviously been taking out her frustrations. He looked back at her bruising knuckles and then at the stool, before taking up a space on the floor. He looked at her, not saying anything for a while.  
  
"Daniel's fine by the way, Janet's determined that there was no lasting damage."  
  
"Pity." she said, still not looking at him. He looked at her, curiously.  
  
"What did you say to him in there?" he asked, carefully. Her eyes made contact with his and he leaned back a little.  
  
"Don't touch me or I'll kill you, you lying bastard." she said, and Jack's eyebrows arched, only slightly appalled that she would say something like that at all. But then again, Janet had said she was made up of their DNA, right? He'd felt like saying something to that effect loads of times. She returned to looking past him, tears sliding down her cheeks.  
  
He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out to her, only to have her ignore it.  
  
"Go. Away." she said, slowly. He shook his head.  
  
"I really don't think that would be a good idea." he said, and her eyes flicked back to him, narrowing in anger, pain, and every other relevantly bad emotion.  
  
"I am not in the mood for any of your moral bullshit!" she yelled at him, arms moving away from her knees to reveal a very angry, very wet faced teenager. "I want to be left alone, so go away!"  
  
She stood up, and he did the same, trying to be firm, but not get her homicidally angry in the process. He put a hand on her shoulder only to have her turn and take a swing at him. He had, fortunately for him, learned from Daniel's example and leaned back to avoid the fist as Teal'c came through the door.  
  
She ignored him, taking another swing at Jack, who threw his own punch and knocked her for a loop. She hit the ground and rolled away, coming to a complete stop at Teal'c's feet and curling up into a ball. She stayed there, her shoulders twitching occasionally as she softly began crying again.  
  
Jack looked at her and let out a breath, nodding at Teal'c when the larger man raised an eyebrow at him. It was strange how the team had come to interpret Teal'c's many degrees of arched eyebrows. For instance, this one meant 'Shall we transport young Teal'la to the infirmary?'  
  
Which, after he thought about it, probably wasn't such a good idea. Seeing as how that's where Danny boy was sleeping off the punch.  
  
Well, they'd just burn that bridge when they came to it.  
  
A/N: Okay, that was a little depressing, but I couldn't make that chapter cheerful if I tried, so I decided to go for the all out angsty depression. Sorry if I made anyone cry, was in a 'mood' (Used all my endorphins reading the story mentioned in the Disclaimer. Really funny shit, man.) 


	6. There have been more hospitable hospital...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Teal'la, the sweet punch she landed on Daniel, and the pissy mood that she's understandably in.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Six  
  
Teal'la had not responded to Teal'c's gentle transport to the infirmary, nor Janet's soft oath at her complete compliance, seeing as she was fully conscious, or so it seemed. She could have been catatonic, they never would have known. She was put in the bed beside the unconscious Daniel's, despite Jack's quiet insistences that this was not such a hot idea. She did nothing, lying quietly on the hospital-like bed without complaint and not even flinching when Janet stuck the IV in her arm.  
  
Or when she shone the penlight in her eyes. She just laid there like she was dead.  
  
Except of course that her heartbeat was still as strong and steady as ever.  
  
Even so, Jack and Teal'c hovered over her and Daniel, even through Janet's demands that they exit the infirmary. She said it was disturbing the patients, but given that they both appeared to be unresponsive to the living world, they pretty much ignored her.  
  
Occasionally, Teal'la would blink, and they took this as a relatively good sign. Teal'c watched her in a mother hen-ish way, and Jack switched his gaze between the two of them. He had gained a great deal of respect for this young girl, considering that she hadn't gone crazy and killed anyone...or herself.  
  
Yet.  
  
"Do you think she will be well, O'Neill?" asked the concerned Jaffa as he watched the teenager for any signs of improvement. Jack looked at him.  
  
"That depends on if she wants to be well." responded the colonel. Teal'c looked at him.  
  
"I do not understand, O'Neill."  
  
"For cryin' out loud, Teal'c, she just found out that she's been snaked for pretty much her entire existence, Would *you* want to recover?" he asked. Teal'c considered.  
  
"Indeed I would O'Neill, disgusted as I would feel for the rest of my existence. I would prefer life knowing exactly what I am." he said, stoic expression remaining on his face, apart from his eyebrow arching. "Knowledge of oneself allows one to become all that they are capable of being."  
  
Jack stared at his friend for a long moment and shook his head.  
  
"Including a homicidal maniac?" he asked, incredulously. Teal'c's eyebrow, having returned to a resting position, arched again.  
  
"Indeed, if that is the path chosen." he replied, unperturbed. At that moment, Teal'la took a deep breath and let it out through her nose, blinking slowly and calmly.  
  
"I'm trying to induce a coma, could you keep it down, please?" she asked, in a somewhat smooth voice, that indicated that she had decided to stop crying and simply roll over to die. Jack and Teal'c looked at her, both of them raising eyebrows now. "Kinda hard to be catatonic with people yapping incessantly, if ya know what I mean."  
  
"In other words, you want us to shut up and leave you alone." Jack translated. She gave something that might have, on a good day, passed as a smirk.  
  
"I see all your facilities are in order. This means of course that Daniel has lied more than once." she said, and then abruptly rolled over onto her side, away from them. "Please leave."  
  
"I do not believe that this would be sound judgment on our part if we were to comply, young Teal'la. If we were to leave you, you might injure DanielJackson, or worse, yourself. We would be deprived of the ability to study you as both a strategic interest and as a person." Teal'c said. She was silent for a moment, then rolled back to look at them.  
  
Hers was a look of masked interest.  
  
"Why would you want to get to know me? I'm permanently of the Goa'uld race, whether or not I want to be. I am the embodiment of everything that you people are against." she said, not even bothering to mask the disgust in her voice, or check her volume level. Teal'c glanced at Daniel to see if he could hear this and saw that he was remaining still, but he was aware.  
  
"Yeah, well, you seem like a nice person." Jack said, precipitating an incredulous stare from Teal'la as Teal'c arched his eyebrow...again.  
  
"Indeed, O'Neill speaks the truth." he said. She stared at them and shook her head.  
  
"Well, when you're not running all over the place and getting Teal'c to throw me up against walls and junk." Jack continued. Teal'la looked back at him and he searched her face for any sign that she might find this amusing. Her mouth twitched...once.  
  
"O'Neill, have I not already offered my sincerest apologies for this misunderstanding?" asked Teal'c, and Jack looked at him, shrugging.  
  
"It's fine, Teal'c, really." he insisted. Carter arrived at that moment, and hesitated upon seeing Teal'la, before plastering a smile to her face. At this show of uncertainty masked by friendliness, Teal'la rolled over, turning her back on the woman, whose smile disappeared abruptly, realizing her faux pas. It was then that Daniel opened his eyes.  
  
"Mmm." he murmured, about the brightness, and they all looked at him except Teal'la, who hunched her shoulders and drew her knees in as well, closing her eyes. Jack glanced at her and then looked back at Daniel, trying to think of a way to include her in the almost guaranteed conversation that was about to ensue. "What happened?" he asked.  
  
"Teal'la hit you." Teal'c supplied, truthfully. Daniel's eyes lit up with dawning recollection and he reached a hand towards his face, wincing as he touched the purpling, bruising imprint of Teal'la's fist.  
  
"Oh yeah." he said, dryly.  
  
"In her defense, you were all for keeping this extremely important and personal information from her. Not a comparatively good way to ensure a prolonged and healthy existence." Jack said. Daniel grunted, closing his eyes.  
  
"As you are constantly reminding me, Jack; I'm not a particularly wise person. Smart, but not too bright." he replied. Jack had crossed to Teal'la's little cot and was sitting on a portion that she was not occupying. He nudged her gently with an elbow.  
  
"You listening to this?" he asked, a hint of amusement clear in his voice.  
  
"No." came the flat reply. He made a face.  
  
"Right." he said, rolling his eyes. "Of course, I should have expected that, you're made up of all of our genetic material, you would be just as stubborn as he is." he continued casually. Teal'la stiffened and then pushed herself up, standing, ripping the IV from her arm and grabbing her jacket, turning to go and not looking at any of them.  
  
That is until Teal'c placed a soft, but firm hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Teal'la, Doctor Fraiser wishes you to stay." he said, firmly. She jerked her shoulder roughly from his grasp and turned, looking him in the eye.  
  
"Look at me very closely, and then ask me if I care." she said. And, in their moment of stunned silence, their jaws brushing the floor, she turned on her barefooted heel and left, arms folded over the familiar leather of her jacket. Jack looked at his teammates as they turned their disbelieving eyes towards him and searched his vocabulary for the appropriate thing to say.  
  
"Oops?" he offered. 


	7. Bruises, bets and hospital beds

Disclaimer: mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
It took considerably much longer to find Teal'la this time, Jack noticed, as he, Daniel, Carter and Teal'c wandered the halls looking for her, determined to set things back on the right track. Jack had all but given up hope when he noticed a soldier on his way to Hammonds, holding a bag of ice to his jaw.  
  
Carter recognized him as Rimsky, the officer who she had seen Teal'la 'intimidate' earlier. She jogged up to him.  
  
"Lieutenant!" she called, and he looked at her, making her wince as she saw that he also had a split lip and a black eye. Teal'c observed him in a somewhat indifferent manner, eyebrow perked in mild intrigue.  
  
"Major." Rimsky greeted curtly. Carter looked at him.  
  
"Who gave you those...(ahem)...bruises?" she asked. He pulled the ice pack away for a moment and then looked at the Colonel and Teal'c, who was quite intimidating just standing there.  
  
"That would be the newly arrived teenaged barbarian, Major. Last seen, she was taking on anyone who felt confident enough to get in the sparring ring. I wouldn't be surprised if the next person who lost wound up dead." he said, sounding as respectful as possible while still bad-mouthing Teal'la. The others looked at each other, mostly looking at Daniel, and then all bolted down the hall towards the gym.  
  
Barreling through the Gym's doors, they were treated to a spectacle. Teal'la herself had not yet discarded her leather jacket and was still in jeans. She was facing off against Corporal Boax, a bright, if somewhat overly eager transfer who wore a determined look on her face. He wore gloves and a head-piece, and Teal'la was bare fisted, with nothing to protect her own skull except a backwards baseball hat. Jack and Teal'c shared the same uneasy glance that Carter and Daniel were sharing, and they stepped forwards.  
  
From the center of a crowd of gathering people, Jack could hear Lou Farretti's annoyingly weasel-like voice, taking bets like a good little bookie.  
  
"Okay, I got twenty to one that Teal'la wins inside of five minutes." he could be heard saying, and Jack gestured for Sam to take care of it. The Major pushed and shoved her way through the crowd to get to the officer in question. Lou looked surprised, but a grin quickly filled his features. "Major!" he said, by way of greeting. "Care to place a wager on the match?"  
  
"FARRETTI!!" Major Carter raged, and the man froze, pen touching paper.  
  
"Yes Major?" he inquired.  
  
"Put down the notebook and stop taking bets before I find an MP." she snapped. Farretti looked to his left, and when she did too, she saw three clearly marked Military Police officers fighting with the crowd to make their own bets. She stared for a moment, and then looked back at Farretti. "Or perhaps you would prefer that I let Teal'c take care of you." she suggested, and the officer in front of her paled. He put the notebook away, shaking his head at having been put down.  
  
"No more bets!" he announced, and there was a disappointed murmur through the crowd. But then they all turned to watch as Jack, Teal'c and Daniel approached the edge of the squared circle.  
  
"Teal'la," started Jack, calmly, and she barely spared him a glance, blocking and swinging at Boax, who dodged warily. As Teal'la turned to face him while he bobbed and danced around the ring, the three of them could see that she already had a black eye, and that her nose had been bleeding recently. Daniel winced. "What do you think you're doing?" Jack finished.  
  
"Kinda busy here, Colonel O'Neill. How about I schedule you in for an appointment later?" she asked, as she ducked a few more punches and blocked one, knocking Boax to the ground. He quickly got to his feet and faced her once more. Jack rolled his eyes and grabbed the rope, pulling himself up and into the ring where they were sparring. Boax looked at him uncertainly; Teal'la ignored him completely.  
  
"Get lost Boax." the Colonel ordered, and Boax froze, uncertain of which action to take. Continue the fight to see if he could beat the angry teen, or follow the orders of his superior officer and be branded a coward for taking an easy out? "OUT!!"  
  
Okay, so he was a coward...but he was a fast coward.  
  
Teal'la watched him leave and then focused her attention on the Colonel, who leaned casually on the corner turnbuckle. For a long moment they stared at her, and then she turned to leave, only to find the others were quickly taking corresponding positions in the ring. She nodded comprehendingly.  
  
"Speak." she demanded, folding her arms and shifting her weight back onto one leg. Jack shook his head.  
  
"Okay, stop." he ordered. "Stop with the whiny, spoiled, pouting brat schpiel. It's gone on long enough, and quite frankly, I'm tired of it."  
  
Her already angry eyes glinted dangerously, hands clenching so hard that her knuckles popped. Jack narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Whoever it is that you're really mad at, it isn't us, and you know that." he snapped, and she held her head up, listening to, but not really accepting what he was saying, much like the stubborn child that she was. Daniel took a deep breath, resigned to the fact that he was not going to escape this at all.  
  
"Jack, maybe I should—"  
  
The look that came over Teal'la's face then was amazing. She looked as if he'd just run over her puppy dog, eaten her baby, flushed her goldfish and accidentally had her frog's legs for lunch. It was the supreme look of pain, and Daniel recognized it immediately. It was the same look he himself had worn when he had learned that Teal'c had killed Shau'ri. This was the kind of pain that took a very long time to go away enough to forgive the offending party. He swallowed heavily.  
  
"You've done enough." she choked out, and turned to go, batting away Jack as he tried to restrain her, and then shoving a somewhat more insistent Teal'c as he tried to do the same. The fact that she managed to elude his pretty much unbreakable hold was amazing to all of them as they watched her walk towards the door of the gym. Halfway to the door she stopped, rather suddenly, and seemed to hunch over. She clutched at her chest, and immense feeling of suffocation overcoming her. Her heart beat like a rabbit's, and she stumbled a step.  
  
Her sight swam before her as she gasped, tears spilling down her cheeks. She fell to her knees and fear trickled down her spine.  
  
This is it, my heart's exploding. I'm gonna die.  
  
She felt footsteps, heavy against the floor as four people ran to her. She could just see Daniel through the haze of tears, as he pulled her upright and checked for a pulse.  
  
"Oh...God...can't breathe...Daddy." she gasped, and he picked her up, running as fast as his legs would carry him towards the infirmary.  
  
Oh God, this was all his fault!  
  
**  
  
Daniel was asleep with his face on the table next to her hospital bed when Teal'la woke up. She laid still for a moment, mostly because it hurt to move, looking around. Daniel was the only one in the room with her, she could see Janet working diligently on some paperwork in her office.  
  
She remembered vaguely what happened. And she remembered an intense amount of pain. She thought she was about to bite the big one, as Danny was always saying. She closed her eyes at the pang inside her chest at the thought of her father, taking a deep breath to push those thoughts aside.  
  
Her deep breath woke Daniel with a start, and he looked at her, panic written on his face as he watched her open her eyes. He scooted closer to the bed and reached for her hand before deciding that she probably wouldn't want him touching her at all.  
  
"Teal'la, are you alright?" he asked, his voice dripping concern while at the same time being low enough that Janet wouldn't hear. Teal'la looked at him, feeling another pang as she saw the worry lining his features. Just like her dad. She was confused. Was she back home? Did she have some terrible blackout? She had those a lot.  
  
Had she been dreaming?  
  
"Daddy?" she asked, reaching for his hand. He offered it to her, a little confused, but glad to have her awake.  
  
"It's me, Teal'la. It's Daniel." he said, and she seemed to realize where she was. Her eyes closed halfway and she became stoic.  
  
"Right." she said. His hope that maybe she had forgiven him faltered and then fell, and he sighed. "What happened? I was in the gym, and then I was here."  
  
Daniel fell right back into his roll of 'he-who-must-explain-all' and looked at her.  
  
"Extreme Emotional Stress. Your chest seized up, your lungs wouldn't let any air in, your heart stopped beating." He stopped here and watched her let out a sigh of exclamation, shaking her head.  
  
"If I had a nickel for every time I'd blacked out or been in an emotional state, I'd be rich." she said, and he settled on looking confused. She gave a humorless laugh at his quizzical expression. "I have four...five...personalities running rampant in my genetics. Is it really any wonder that I'm still capable of my own still pretty screwed up thoughts?"  
  
He thought about it, squeezing her hand.  
  
"Teal'la, I am...Profoundly sorry for hurting you." he said. She looked at him, and then sat up, using her other hand to pat his cheek.  
  
"After learning that I was a Goa'uld, I was bound to be pretty messed up for a while. The best thing you could do was push me towards a collapse, so that I would black out and my system would fix it. I fell fine. Not great, but not depressingly horrible, either. Now, I'm gonna go cheer myself up by scaring the stuffing out of O'Neill."  
  
She reached over and turned off the monitors before pulling the electrodes from her skin. She stood up, somewhat unsteadily, and grabbed her leather jacket from the back of Daniel's chair. He stood up and touched her shoulder, stopping her.  
  
She looked back at him, questioningly, and then opened her eyes wide in surprise when he hugged her. She smiled, hugging him back and closing her eyes before pinching his cheek playfully and bouncing off down the hall, in as high a spirit as she was when she had first arrived. 


	8. Nickels, practical jokes and premission ...

Disclaimer: Okay, she's back in a good mood. Of course, everyone thinks that she's unconscious, (except Daniel)  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Eight  
  
Teal'la watched Jack as he watched his television, waiting for him to get comfortable. She had already removed the vent covering from the ceiling and was waiting for the proper time for her to drop through and scare the ever- living hell out of him.  
  
When he had gotten tired of the Simpsons, he rose, crossing to his desk. Teal'la took full advantage of this opportunity, dropping through silently and waiting for him to turn around.  
  
"O'NEILL!" she yelled, and the papers he had grabbed fell unnoticed to the floor as he grabbed his chest and leaned on the desk. Teal'la had followed the papers' example and was now rolling on the floor, laughing until tears came to her eyes. He recovered from his mini heart attack and stared at her.  
  
After a moment, she was down to giggling madly, and looked up at him, wiping away the wetness from her face as she propped herself up on her elbows. Nothing quite as interesting as a teenaged girl with a bruised face laughing her ass off.  
  
"You should've seen your face." she said, and tried to emulate his expression, failing as the giggles returned full force. Jack sighed, flopping back in his chair as the door opened and Janet entered, looking frantic.  
  
"Colonel, have you see-"She stopped abruptly when she saw Teal'la, in the middle of hysterics on Jacks office floor. Teal'la gave a short, informal salute, as soon as she was able to calm down enough to keep her giggles contained.  
  
"Hey Janet." she said, and Janet waved, first relieved, and then annoyed.  
  
"She certainly lives up to her genetics," she muttered as she left, referring to how hard it was to keep any of them in the infirmary for *any* length of time. Teal'la snorted, sitting up and looked at O'Neill. She threw her arms wide and smirked.  
  
"I'm better." she said, helpfully.  
  
"I see that." he snapped. "Was it really necessary to further the progress of my gray hairs?"  
  
She pushed her own hair behind her ears, purposely drawing his attention to the swatches of gray hair that grew in front of them.  
  
"Yup." she answered smartly. "Sir." she added, with an impetuous smirk.  
  
He shook his head. Then he looked at her.  
  
"So, how you feeling?" he asked. She shrugged.  
  
"Mending. I don't hate Daniel anymore." At least, not this one.  
  
"Always a plus." Jack agreed. "Hs anybody else fallen victim to your practical jokes?"  
  
"I was thinking about paying a visit to Farretti, but he might have a heart- attack." she said with a shrug. He shook his head.  
  
"You what, wanted to scare someone and my name jumped to mind?" he asked, only slightly annoyed. "You didn't think about scaring Carter or Teal'c, or, God forbid, Hammond?"  
  
She thought about it and shook her head.  
  
"Nope. Besides, you deserved it. You called me a spoiled whiny pouty brat. Remember?" He groaned, rolling his eyes. She smirked, getting to her feet. "Payback's a bitch, ain't it?" she quipped. He looked at her.  
  
"Watch your language." he said, tiredly. She smiled.  
  
"So, what time is it? Passed out about three times today, lost all track of time." she said. He sighed and looked at his watch.  
  
"Seven a.m." he replied, and she raised an eyebrow. "You were out for the whole night."  
  
"Oh." she said, tilting her head. "Pie."  
  
And with that rather sudden given directive, she left, walking barefooted down the stone corridors and towards the commissary, ignoring the frantic glances that she was getting from people. She was barefoot, wearing a slightly more beat up version of Jack's jacket, and no hat. People were more than a little uncomfortable.  
  
She arrived at the commissary and headed almost immediately for the counter, smiling at the cook behind the glass. He pulled out the half empty tin of pumpkin cheesecake and handed it to her. She took it and turned to go, stopping.  
  
"Whipped cream?" she asked, hopefully, and he smirked, handing her a container of the stuff. She smiled happily and looked around. Carter was there, sitting with her back to the teenager. Teal'la smirked, walking towards her. When she was close enough, Teal'la took her fork and put it at the base of Carter's back. "This is a stick-up." she said, in a badly imitated gangster voice. Carter jumped, and the girl grinned.  
  
"God, Teal'la you scared me." Carter confessed, holding a hand over her heart. Teal'la smirked proudly.  
  
"I know." she intoned proudly. "I'm planning on getting Teal'c next. Think I can do it?"  
  
"I think he might take a swing at you before he realizes it's you." Carter warned. Teal'la nodded.  
  
"I know that too." she said.  
  
"Teal'la." came the base tones behind her.  
  
With a squawk, Teal'la jumped half out of her skin, and then let her head drop onto the table with a 'thump', hand clutching the skin over her heart. Carter chuckled, shaking her head. Teal'la lifted her head after a moment and looked at Teal'c, who looked rather smug as he sat by her, bearing his own lunch.  
  
"Touché, Teal'c." she conceded, and he nodded, eyebrow raised. "Who knew that Jaffa were excellent pranksters. You and I should work together sometime." she proposed.  
  
"Indeed." was the reply. She smirked, contenting herself with her pie for a moment.  
  
"I have to leave tomorrow." she said, and they looked at her. She shrugged. "Pre-arranged schedule. I go through the Stargate, stay three days, come back home, using the same code I left with."  
  
Carter looked at Teal'c and then back at Teal'la as Daniel rolled up.  
  
"Hey guys," he said. and was soon followed by Jack, who toted a pair of familiar boots and socks. He handed them to Teal'la, who began to don them, nodding her thanks through a mouthful of cheesecake.  
  
They talked for the rest of the morning, until they were called for a pre- mission briefing, which Teal'la was invited to join.  
  
And she did. 


	9. Complications, of course

Disclaimer: Okay, I'm back. Oh, and I don't own anyone besides Teal'la...possibly Rimsky.  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Nine  
  
On the day that Teal'la was to depart for her timeline/dimension, she received several small gifts from various members of the SGC, although Daniel was having a lot of trouble finding something that she didn't already have in her own timeline.  
  
After a short sparring match with the Carter and then with Teal'c (With Sam she won, with Teal'c they declared it a tie.), she returned to her room to pack, and found Jack waiting outside with his yo-yo, trying to do the Eiffel tower. She smirked.  
  
"Hey, Jack." she said. He nodded, and she opened the door. He followed her inside, leaving the door open. She stood her duffel upright and started packing her perfectly pressed shirts and pants. Jack made a face. That must be the Daniel or Carter in her he thought.  
  
"Hey," he said, by way of return greeting.  
  
"Come to say good-bye?" she asked. He looked at her to see if there was anything ulterior about that question, and when she glanced up a couple seconds later, right eyebrow raised in confusion, he shook himself.  
  
"Yeah. We have the mission thing, so I figured I'd do that now, get it out of the way." he said. She nodded.  
  
"Where are you guys going again?"  
  
"XP4-...something or other." Jack said, dismissively.  
  
"Right, the survey mission." she said, nodding. He shrugged, clearly conveying the message, 'whatever'. "Think George would let me go too? I mean, he is my godfather and all." she continued, nonchalantly, stuffing her shirts none too gently into her duffel. Jack blinked a few times, sure he had misheard.  
  
"What?" he asked after a moment.  
  
"Yeah. You know, Daniel was right, I'm from a completely different timeline, although, he expressly forbade me from telling anyone. It's just, right now I couldn't care less, ya know?" she asked, savagely shoving her stuff into the already beaten up Duffel bag. He watched her, nodding warily that, yeah, he knew what she meant. "And all those times that I've blacked out on a mission, or at home. Hell, at my last birthday party when the Goa'uld attacked. He always explained it as someone knocking me out from behind. I never realized till now just how much bullshit that is." Jack watched her become more and more agitated and wondered just how badly she would react to Daniel's entering the room at this moment. He considered the possibilities and reminded himself just how very glad he was that she wasn't mad at him.  
  
"Teal'la." he interrupted, and her head snapped up to look at him.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"You're not gonna do anything..." What was the word he was searching for? "...Hasty...are you?" he asked. She raised an eyebrow and shook her head, slowly.  
  
"I suppose not...but when I get back to my timeline, Danny-boy and I are going to have a long...long chat about trust." she responded, and he nodded, wondering if that was code for kicking Daniel's ass.  
  
After he left, she wandered around for a while, looking at the base. She was gonna miss this timeline...there were more people.  
  
About an hour before she was scheduled to leave, she was passed by about three soldiers and four gate technicians, including Walter (a.k.a chevron guy), who looked concerned. Teal'la's mind throbbed, and her stomach clenched as she realized something had gone wrong and SG1 was the only team off-world.  
  
She threw her duffel against the wall and ran off, stopping at the weapons lock-up before making her way to the control room.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked, fixing her jacket's collar as she walked in, heedless of the guards just outside.  
  
"The transmitter that was sending back readings of the planetary survey was just attacked. We had to sever the connection from our end." answered George as he turned. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw her armed to the teeth.  
  
"Relax, George, they're mine, and I'm not gonna fire them in here." she promised. "What are you gonna do about SG1's situation?"  
  
"We'll send a MALP through to determine if there is immediate danger or if there was simply an accident." he replied, still looking warily at her. "Did they just let you take those from the weapon's lock-up?" he asked. She looked at him for a second.  
  
"Sure." she said, before looking at the Stargate. He shook his head and then turned to watch as the technicians set up the MALP for Gate travel.  
  
"Alright, dial up." Hammond said, when the technicians had cleared the area. Teal'la sighed as the MALP went through the wormhole, turning her eyes to the screen.  
  
"Receiving telemetry." said Walter, as the video feed sprang onto the computer's monitor. It showed the wrecked equipment, and then the feed fritzed into static as two plasma beams converged on the probe. Teal'la cursed.  
  
Jaffa. Damn.  
  
"Alright. Let's send—"  
  
"SG1." Teal'la said, and there was no mistaking what she meant by it, although George ignored her insinuation.  
  
"Teal'la, who did you think was out there?" he asked. She looked at him.  
  
"George, I am SG1, and I'm going after them, but I'd really like your permission. I can help, so let me." she insisted, folding her arms stubbornly. He wavered for a second and she pulled the red communicator from her belt, punching in the twenty digit number. "When it beeps, push the green button. Keep the ear piece in your ear and the fiber optic lens pointed at you. Tell Daniel that I won't be coming home and that he's an asshole. Thanks."  
  
As she turned to go, one of the officers that was partial to her led her to the equipment room where he gave her ear piece that was set to the team's frequency. By the time she'd reached the gate room, the event horizon was already in place.  
  
She approached the watery wormhole, drawing two of her nine millimeters and fixing them at an angle, which her quick mind had calculated the staff blasts had come from. When she had them pointed in what she hoped were the correct directions, she took a calm step through the Stargate, exhaling just before to make room for the deep intake of breath she would have the urge to take on the other side.  
  
Almost immediately upon exiting the wormhole, she pulled the trigger several times, watching as two Jaffa dropped like stones and then diving down the steps and taking cover behind the DHD.  
  
She peeked out from behind the device, playing on the Jaffa's reluctance to shoot at his only way through the gate. She spotted him in the tree and shrank behind the DHD as he fired a plasma blast just short of the cosmic telephone.  
  
"Stupid." she muttered as she leaned out and fired at him. He fell from the tree and she cautiously got to her feet, crouching in case there were any more. When no one fired at her, she pushed the communication ear-piece more securely into her ear and walked into the forest, still holding both nine millimeters. "Marco." she said, mostly to herself, as she wasn't really expecting the team to be able to hear her.  
  
"Polo!" came the whispered and relieved voice. She straightened. The signal was weak, but it was there.  
  
"Marco." she said, walking east, deeper into the forest.  
  
"Polo." several voices now, Sam's and Daniels with the first one. Jack. Had to be. At least they were alive.  
  
"Need a direction here, people." Teal'la whispered urgently into the small microphone, looking around.  
  
"East of the Gate." Sam hissed quietly. Teal'la took off through the underbrush, her footfalls barely registering, even in her ears. She hadn't run for more than a minute before she came to the edge of a clearing. Daniel, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c were all bound and on their knees, being guarded by seven Jaffa. Teal'la's breath caught in her throat as a strong sense of recognition flared to mind.  
  
"Oh my god." she whispered, swallowing.  
  
This was how they died. 


	10. Surfacing demons, Don't ask, don't tell,...

Disclaimer: Not important  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter?  
  
Chapter Ten.  
  
Teal'la felt frozen in time. She'd seen this...well, it felt like every single day of her life, really. This was how they died in her timeline. A shudder coursed through her, and she could imagine Daniel's voice in the back of her head, saying, "Feels like someone just walked over your grave, huh?"  
  
She shook her head and watched as the rings descended from above and Apophis appeared, alone.  
  
"The great and powerful Apophis. Won't it be sweet to finally get my shot at you?" she growled, putting the safety back on her nine millimeters and pulling up her P-190. Taking aim, she gritted her teeth. "Nobody twitch."  
  
Seven rounds were fired in procession, and the three inch bullets penetrated the armor, leaving a huge, honking hole in each of the Jaffa's armor, through which the torrents of blood escaped. Amazingly, most of it landed on Daniel and Jack. When they were all down and dead, she stepped into view, weapon pointed at Apophis in a way that suggested she her finger would twitch if he so much as twitched in the direction of his little toys. Daniel and Jack looked at her, Daniel looking like he wanted to throw up, and she nodded her head in the direction of the Stargate.  
  
"Get going." she ordered, her eyes still trained on Apophis. The four of them, glancing at each other, returned their gazes to Teal'la.  
  
"We are unable to remove our restraints, Teal'la." Teal'c pointed out.  
  
"You." she snarled at Apophis, and he sneered. "Do it, or I'll blow the snake right out of your head."  
  
He looked at her, seeing the pure, undiluted hate in her eyes, and hesitated before stepping towards the quartet, fishing for the keys in the many puddles of blood that had been his guards. When he found them, he glanced at her, and she cocked the gun.  
  
Quite a menacing sound, that.  
  
When they were all free, Teal'c reached for him, as if to inflict physical harm.  
  
"NO!" Teal'la snapped, loudly, and Teal'c looked at her, confused. Hers was a face of long pent up rage and determination. "He's mine. All of you. Get lost. Wait for me by the Stargate."  
  
They looked at her and she unslung her P-190, holding it out to the blood- soaked Daniel. He took it, reluctantly, and the rest of her weapons. Recognizing the challenge, Apophis drew off his cute little toys from his arms, along with his robe, so that he faced her on equal ground.  
  
"No." Jack said, stepping forward. "That's not how we do things around here."  
  
"Well, I'm not from around here, Jack. This bastard killed my family, and I won't stand for It." she snarled. Jack gritted his teeth and strode towards her, more than aware that he was stopping her from killing their greatest enemy. As he approached, however, she flipped him and then stepped over him to confront Apophis. Jack coughed as Daniel, Carter and Teal'c helped him to his feet. "He does not deserve to live, and you know it."  
  
"We'll wait for you by the Stargate, Teal'la." Carter grunted as she helped the none too light CO out of the battle arena that was quickly coming to be. Apophis circled Teal'la, she circled him, staring at him defiantly. Instead of taking a usual, defensive posture, she walked with her arms to her sides, while his were out from his body, ready to crush her if she attacked.  
  
"You invaded my planet." she said, in a breaking semblance of calm. It was not an accusation, it was a fact, and he recognized it. Of course, he probably thought she meant a place like Chulak, where there were lots of other Jaffa. "You killed most of my family. You hurt my father."  
  
"If you are expecting me to regret it, you are mistaken." he said, and her fists clenched. "I have conquered many worlds. why should yours be any different?"  
  
"Because it's mine." she growled before spinning into a viscous kick to his chin that knocked him back a good ten feet. He recovered well though, dodging her as she came at him again and dealing his own blow to her abdomen.  
  
He missed her solar plexus however, and when she didn't double over in pain as he expected, he tried to back away, only to find himself in great pain. Fire licked at his nerves and he stumbled back, holding the injury between his legs. She smirked impetuously, holding up her fists and bouncing back and forth like a boxer.  
  
"I am really going to like beating the shit out of you." she said, with a malicious grin as he looked up at her.  
  
"Sir, we should go back for her. She could be in very serious trouble." Carter said, looking at her winded and dignity damaged Colonel. he said nothing for a long moment.  
  
"I am in agreement with Major Carter, O'Neill." Teal'c said. Jack looked at them through his shades and shook his head.  
  
"No." he said, and held up a hand when Daniel made to protest. "The kid wants revenge, and we don't do that. So, we go back and she's killed Apophis, so we court-martial her for murder, or we go back and Apophis is still alive, and we stop her. She hates us for life and refuses to ever work with or for us for a very long time. She comes back alone and hopefully not covered in Apophis's blood, and we can say that she rescued us and we returned through the Stargate, no questions."  
  
"Don't ask, don't tell." Daniel said. Jack gave a wry smile.  
  
"Did you think it just referred to relationships between members of the military?" he asked, and Daniel fixed his glasses, clearing his throat.  
  
And at that moment, a blood-curdling shriek split the air and caused the hair on the back of all of their necks to stand on end. They all looked at each other and then surged to their feet, dashing off towards the last known location of their genetic offspring.  
  
"Seems you've forgotten the possibility of her dying, Jack!" Daniel shouted as they ran.  
  
"Less talking, more running." Jack yelled back.  
  
Teal'c reached the clearing first and stopped, frozen by the sight before him. As the others reached him, they slowed to a stop, mouths gaping as they watched...  
  
Pain!!  
  
Unbelievable pain! It shot through her like wildfire in her blood and she looked at Apophis with wide eyes, her mouth working to say something.  
  
"Oh, shit." she said, as she sank to her knees, a whimper of pain escaping her as the jerking halt caused the sharp stinging to progress further into her body. She looked down at the dagger that Apophis had stabbed into her right lung and pulled in half of a shuddery breath that hurt like hell.  
  
Apophis laughed but she didn't hear. He insulted and mocked her but she didn't respond, too busy trying to wrap her mind around what was happening.  
  
I'm dying she thought to herself. I've failed, and now I'm going to die.  
  
She closed her eyes, becoming increasingly tired with each moment. She wanted to sleep, to lay down and die in her shameful failure.  
  
Forgive me, daddy...  
  
Apophis watched her, waiting for her to slump forward so that he could drag her corpse back to his ship and revive her, in order to kill her once again. Her breath became shallow, and he actually grinned in anticipation.  
  
Then he watched as her left hand flashed up and grabbed onto the hilt, seeming to move of its own volition. And he watched the muscles in that arm contract as she pulled the dagger from her own chest, screaming from the extreme pain as the dagger aggravated the nerves around her wound.  
  
He watched in dumb fascination as she clutched the dagger, bringing one foot in front of her and using it to push herself into a standing position. She raised her eyes to his and he backed up, eyes widening as he saw the white glow around her irises, the grimace of pain and contempt upon her face.  
  
"I will not fail." she said, her voice demonically amplified as she started towards him, covered in her own blood.  
  
Jack stared at Teal'la as she stood over the body of her slain enemy.  
  
No, slain is too mild a word to describe it.  
  
She decimated him. Dismembered and decapitated him, with what would appear to be his own knife. And despite the colonel's hopes, she was covered in blood.  
  
They stared, frozen to the spot, at the carnage and gore that was contained in this one area. Teal'la's chest heaved from what appeared at first to be adrenaline. When she turned to them, however, and they saw the blood seeping through the fingers of her hand as she held her chest, they pulling in a collective hissing breath, and they knew the blood was mostly if not all hers.  
  
"Oh my God." Daniel said, and Teal'la lifted her eyes for them to see that they were glowing, however dimly.  
  
"God...had nothing...to do with It." she said, and then stumbled towards them. Jack brought his weapon up to defend himself. "I...do not have the time...to prove that I mean you no harm. Unless you do something...immediately...Teal'la will die, and so will I." she said, her face contorting into grimaces of pain as she spoke. She moved towards them and looked at Teal'c, seeing the conflict within him, and stopping. For a second she was still, and then she dropped to her knees, the light in her eyes flickering as she heaved forward and vomited blood.  
  
A decision was made, and Teal'c took a few bounding steps to cross the distance between them, picking her up in his arms and moving with a purpose back towards the Stargate. Daniel's mind was made up as well and he went to follow his friend and Teal'la.  
  
"Jack, grab her gear!" he yelled, and if Jack's blood hadn't been pounding in his ears from the shock he'd just received, he would have yelled Daniel into the ground for giving him an order.  
  
Instead, he did exactly as he was told, and when they got to the Stargate, he gathered all of Teal'la's weapons and holsters and carried them back through the Stargate as Sam punched in the GDO code.  
  
On the other side, they were met by soldiers and General Hammond, who went unnoticed by Teal'c as Teal'la choked out half of a word. Teal'c nodded and walked right past Hammond, out through the door as George stood there, white as a sheet, staring after them. Jack, Sam and Daniel followed Teal'c and they found themselves standing in front of the room were they kept all their captured technology.  
  
Captured Goa'uld technology.  
  
Jack realized where Teal'c was going with this and gestured for the man standing guard to open the door immediately, flashing the security clearance pass that he kept on his person at all times. The door open, they all flooded past the man, who stared after them, deeply disturbed by the sight of Teal'la gushing her own life fluid.  
  
Over by the far wall, Sam pulled the tarp off of the one thing they had vowed never to use except in case of an extreme emergency.  
  
A sarcophagus.  
  
The team had had many bad experiences with the device they were now contemplating using. Sam reached over and pulled on the lever that would open the device. Teal'la's head turned to watch it and then her eyes rolled up into her head as she stopped breathing and went completely limp. 


	11. Teal'la wakes up or does she?

Disclaimer: I own the situation and Teal'la  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
Jack and Daniel paced like expecting fathers, glancing occasionally at the tomb within which they had placed the corpse of their entire team's friend, genetic offspring, and, as of three hours ago, savior.  
  
Sam sat on the sarcophagus, thinking deep thoughts about the teenaged girl being extensively healed as they waited.  
  
Teal'c simply stood by, eyes closed, contemplating the significance of befriending a host of a Goa'uld. Basically, she was still just a child, but her permanent symbiotic Goa'uld made her a formidable warrior. If she were to turn against them, he was doubtful that anyone but he would be able to take her down. And he wasn't even that certain about his abilities against her.  
  
There was a rumbling sound and Sam jumped slightly, scooting off of the sarcophagus and backing up a couple steps. Daniel took a few steps forward, but kept his distance from the thing, staring at it with a wary hope.  
  
Inside, Teal'la lay extremely still, hands laying across her stomach. She looked almost at peace.  
  
"Is she---"  
  
"She is alive, MajorCarter." Teal'c said, after a brief inspection of the girl. There was a collective sigh of relief from the three Taur'i. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.  
  
In the sarcophagus, Teal'la's forehead creased and her eyelids fluttered as she blinked repeatedly. Looking around, she sat up, gripping the sides of the sarcophagus, opening her mouth as if gasping for breath and then releasing a shaky sigh as her shoulders sagged.  
  
"Teal'la?" asked Jack, cautiously. She blinked a few more times and then looked at him, mouth slightly agape as she studied him for a brief moment. Drawing her knees up, she pushed herself up and then accepted Teal'c's assistance. When she was standing on her own two feet, she clasped her hands behind her back and lifted her eyes to Jack's.  
  
He took a step back, a curl of fear seeping into his abdomen. There was no malice in her glowing eyes as she looked at all of them in turn. In fact, there was appreciation there. There was even a small amount of her own fear lurking behind her somewhat confident exterior.  
  
"I wish to convey my sincerest regrets to you all." she said, and they all shared a confused and wary glance.  
  
"Okay." Jack said...nervously. She gave a short, semi-amused smirk before composing herself. "Why?"  
  
"For..." she thought for a moment and then tilted her head, a small smirk of irony appearing on her face. "...rearing my ugly head." she finished, one eyebrow perking. Jack looked her over, her non-threatening posture, her semi-casualness, and her familiarity with them. "Teal'la is not yet ready to accept that she is not...dead. Otherwise, I would not still be awake. I will accompany you to a holding cell until Teal'la is Teal'la again." she said, shivering suddenly. She looked at the floor for a moment and then took a deep breath. Teal'c raised an eyebrow. She looked up again, mask of calm back on her face.  
  
"That won't be necessary." came a voice behind the group. Sam gave a small, barely noticeable huff as she started, and they all looked to see General Hammond. He looked at them all and then back at Teal'la...or rather, the Goa'uld who had taken her over. "I'm ordering you to the infirmary, miss...?"  
  
"Daniel had long ago explained to Teal'la that the Goa'uld are fond of stealing the names of the gods from your Egyptian culture. I have therefore chosen the name of the Greek goddess Artemis as my designation." she said. Daniel looked at his team with confusion in his eyes. He had told her this? When? He looked at Hammond to deny it, but the General just nodded, as if he understood. Daniel's bewilderment elevated.  
  
"I just got off the line with Doctor Jackson myself. He told me to have Teal'la call him back." Hammond continued. The entire team looked at each other, now extremely perplexed.  
  
"It will be done." promised Artemis with a nod. She unclasped her hands and extended an arm to Teal'c, who raised an eyebrow, but wrapped his hand around her bicep, walking her towards the infirmary. As they walked, Artemis kept Teal'la's phosphorescent eyes faced front. "I wish also to extend my gratitude. I was not certain that you would assist when I requested. Without it...We would have expired." she said after a while.  
  
"Have we erred?" asked Teal'c, his grip tightening on her arm. She seemed not to notice, but she tilted her head.  
  
"No." she replied, and there was a noticeable relaxation amongst the group. "I have no desire for full control at this time. I am...content...merely to assist when required. Unfortunately..." she took a deep breath and heaved a sigh of irritation. "That is annoyingly more often than I am manipulated to handle."  
  
"Manipulated?" asked Jack, eyebrow doing it's own little twitchy dance. Artemis gave a lazy smirk as they approached the infirmary.  
  
"We were created. Daniel Jackson, our father figure and role model, was unable to separate me from Teal'c in the genetic cocktail that he constructed using the DNA of his team, including himself. That is how I came to be." she said, ignoring the looks of outright shock that she was receiving from the four members of SG1. "When I was discovered around her spinal column, attached permanently to her muscle and spinal tissue, 'father' used everything at his fingertips to genetically alter me to be as passive as I could be without killing Teal'la. Once he realized that we were integral to each other, he gave me a little more leeway, albeit very little."  
  
They all looked at Daniel and he scratched at the back of his neck.  
  
"Yeah, that sounds like something I'd do." he said, and Artemis gave a wry smile as she laid down on the gurney.  
  
"I cannot tell you anything more without Teal'la's consent, as it requires me to employ her as a means of communication." Artemis said, in her richly distorted voice, closing her eyes. "But she will not understand that a Goa'uld would have helped her." she said, calmly. The others looked at each other.  
  
"Why not?" asked Sam. Artemis opened Teal'la's eyes and the look that she gave Carter said that it should have been obvious. Then she looked at Teal'c, Daniel, and Jack before closing her eyes, meaning hidden in her actions. Jack and Teal'c shared a look as Sam looked at Daniel for an answer.  
  
"You are the embodiment of everything that Teal'la is against." Teal'c said, recognition flashing in his eyes.  
  
"Indeed." she said. "Teal'la has been fighting and killing my kind for as long as she has been able to wield a weapon. And now she knows that even if she kills all of the others, I will still live. I do not believe that she would willingly come to terms with this."  
  
"Right. Well, why don't you let her be the judge of that." Daniel said, and Teal'la smirked.  
  
"I already have."  
  
And with that, she went to sleep, her breathing becoming regular, not distorted. The others looked at each other and settled down for a long wait. 


	12. waking up, joking around, 'I'm uncomfort...

Disclaimer: much like everything else, I own nothing  
  
Prodigal Son...er...Daughter?  
  
Chapter Twelve.  
  
It seemed like hours before she woke up. And they were all crowded around the hospital bed, staring at her. She looked up at them and winced, putting a hand to her forehead.  
  
"Gods, I feel like I've been sent through a taffy puller...head first." she moaned. "I'm so woozy."  
  
"That is something that usually accompanies blood loss." Teal'c said, zero expression in his voice. Teal'la was quietly processing this information, holding a hand over her eyes.  
  
"Pardon?" she asked.  
  
"You lost a lot of blood, but don't worry, we found most of it." Jack said. She smirked, chuckling, and then coughing.  
  
"Oh, ow. No jokes, it hurts to laugh." she said. Jack murmured an apology. Teal'la sighed, becoming more serious. "I thought I was dead."  
  
There was a small silence.  
  
"You were." Teal'c affirmed. Teal'la was silent.  
  
"Well, technically speaking your heart did stop beating." Daniel said, and the others looked at him, rolling their eyes.  
  
"And how'd Janet manage to bring me back?" Teal'la asked. There was an even longer silence. A trickle of fear found its way to the teenager's heart and she took a deep intake of breath. "Sarcophagus." she breathed, shakily.  
  
"Indeed." Teal'c said. She cursed, softly.  
  
"So...who saved me, I distinctly remember being stabbed to death by Apophis."  
  
What, she was making jokes now?  
  
"Teal'la that's not funny." Sam said, and the small smirk that had been trying to force its way onto the girl's face gave up. She sighed.  
  
"Well, damn, not if you think about it like that." she muttered. Daniel and Sam shared a glance and Jack glanced between them. "I'm waiting for my answer. Whose debt am I in?"  
  
"Um...Teal'c, you wanna handle this one?"  
  
"I do not."  
  
More silence. Long silence.  
  
"I'll do it, she already hates me." Daniel murmured, and Teal'la rolled her eyes, wincing from the pain. She knew that if she interrupted, however, that Daniel would then proceed to explain that it was his fault that she had collapsed, etc, and he would never get around to telling her what happened. "I think that—when Apophis stabbed you—your Goa'uld symbiote took control of your body and...killed him for you. And then sustained you until we could get you through the gate. She, uh...'it'... kicked the bucket just as we got the sarcophagus open. And then..." he stopped and looked at Jack, who was mouthing the word 'NO!' and waving his hands, cutting Daniel off. Daniel closed his mouth and the others looked at each other. Teal'la heaved a huge sigh.  
  
"Tell me, Jack, what happened after I...died..."  
  
"We put you in the tomb, you came out, we took you to the infirmary." Jack lied.  
  
"Who carried me?" she asked, curiously.  
  
"Teal'c." Jack answered immediately, almost amused by her rapid fire questioning.  
  
"And I'm the Queen of France." Teal'la announced.  
  
"Happy to hear it." Jack said with a pleasant smile.  
  
"Jack. I am not comfortable." Teal'la sighed, annoyed. Jack's smile became a look of confusion.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry, but we really can't do anything about the hospital beds-- " Jack started.  
  
"Jack, stop. Teal'c didn't carry me, I walked, and in order to do that, I would have to be conscious. I don't remember being conscious." Teal'la said, hands still over her face.  
  
Jack's face was blank, Daniel and Sam were both confused. And if Teal'c knew what she was talking about, he certainly wasn't telling.  
  
"You're confused, let me explain. When Teal'c carried me to the infirmary the first time? That was the most comfortable half catatonic state I've ever been in...in my entire life." she said, matter-of-factly. Jack pulled on a comprehensive look and nodded. "Every single time I lie in these beds under my own power, I can never get comfortable. I am uncomfortable, so will somebody please tell me what happened between here and the sarcophagus?"  
  
"She spoke to us." Sam said.  
  
"Oh, so now it has a gender?" Teal'la asked. There was no hint of malice in her tired voice, just a note of resignation.  
  
"Well, according to the name she gave us, and the way that she deports herself..." Daniel cut himself off when he saw her lift her hands up to look at him. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and resting her elbows on her knees.  
  
"It has a name?" she asked, incredulously. Daniel looked uncomfortable.  
  
"Yeah, Artemis. Why?"  
  
Teal'la sat stunned as the blood slowly pumped its way through her brain. Then she leaned back, eyebrows lifting as she flopped back onto the gurney.  
  
"Gods," she muttered. Daniel made a face that showed that he agreed. "Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Goddess of wisdom, war, and purity. I hated the Egyptian ones, so I took up Greek myth as a hobby. Perfect." she sighed, covering her face again. "What'd she say?"  
  
"Nothing much. Oh..." Jack pulled the red hand held device that Hammond had given him out of his back pocket. "Call 'Doctor Jackson'."  
  
"555-2008-346-5071-931-563." she rattled off. Jack stared at her and she looked at him. "I'm too woozy." she continued, by way of explanation. He nodded and she repeated the twenty digit number for him. Then he looked at her.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"We wait." She responded. Fortunately they didn't have to wait long, and Teal'la smirked when the machine beeped. "Now push the green button." He did so. "The red button, put him on speaker."  
  
The familiar buzzing and sounds of various machinery met Teal'la's ears and she smiled lightly.  
  
"Can you hear me now, Daniel?" she asked, and Jack smirked, holding the device to face the bed-ridden adolescent.  
  
"Teal'la that's not funny."  
  
"I thought it was."  
  
"George seemed to think you were upset at me for something?"  
  
"Aw, you mean he didn't call you an asshole, like I told him to?"  
  
Daniel opted to avoid that subject entirely, and the other Daniel agreed with him.  
  
"What happened to you?"  
  
"I was injured. I 'blacked out'." she used her fingers to gesture quotation marks, and Daniel on the screen became decidedly flustered. Daniel at Teal'la's bedside stared at the mirror image of himself in awe. "Just like all those other times that I 'blacked out' on a mission with you, dad."  
  
"Teal'la--"  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?!" she snapped, pushing herself up onto her elbows. Teal'c reached to assist her, wrapping a hand around her bicep to help her sit up. Sam, on her other side, helped, cradling her head. Teal'la barely noticed. "Don't tell me that you forgot, you never forget...anything!!"  
  
She sounded resentful.  
  
"George made me promise." he said at last. She stared at him. "We got attached to you. We didn't want you to hurt yourself if you found out at the wrong time."  
  
She stared at him incredulously.  
  
"Jesus, Daniel, what did you think I was gonna do, yell 'my life is a lie' and throw myself at their mercy?" she growled. He took a deep breath, looking miserable. She hardly ever called him Daniel. This was the most upset that she'd ever been towards him. "Did she ever talk to you?"  
  
"No. Why?"  
  
"No reason. Listen, Danny. I can't come home, so we're even."  
  
At this, Daniel on screen looked alarmed.  
  
"Why?!" he asked. "What's happened?"  
  
"There was a situation off planet. I handled it. I saved them from Apophis, dad."  
  
"And what about..."  
  
"She's still alive here too." Teal'la said, and the SG1 shared a suspicious glance. "I'm sorry, dad."  
  
"It's fine. We'll be able to get along without you, we've been doing it for a couple days now." Daniel said, and Teal'la shook her head.  
  
"You sure? I mean half of the time you can barely find your own ass with two hands and a map." she said, and Jack snorted, looking pointedly at the Daniel next to Teal'la's bed. Daniel on screen looked at Jack, Teal'c, and Sam, and his eyes got all misty as he swallowed a lump in his throat.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure. Take care of 'em, Teal'la."  
  
"I plan to. Bye dad." 


End file.
